In welcoming the appointment Eoin Costello (managing director Novara.ie) stated that it represents an important turning point for the company. Having grown rapidly over the past five years Novara.ie is now entering a more mature phase in the company's development. With a planned expansion into new market sectors in 2006 Novara.ie are currently putting in place structures that will underpin the next major growth phase. The help of Orla will be invaluable in doing this he said.

Mr. Costello said that he was delighted that Orla O'Gorman had been appointed as she has impeccable credentials in the Irish corporate finance sector. He said that Novara.ie are particularly enthusiastic about the fact that an Enterprise Ireland survey of those participating in their Mentor Programme exhibited significant benefits from the mentor's involvement. 38% of companies surveyed reported sales increases ranging from 7% to 400% with the average being 92%. 35% of companies recruited new staff since the Mentor's involvement with the average increase being 10 employees per company. A further 21% of companies have increased their export sales by between 5% and 200%.

Mr Costello also thanked the Dublin City Enterprise Board for nominating Novara.ie to receive assistance from the Enterprise Ireland Mentor Programme.

About Orla O'Gorman

Orla O'Gorman, founder of OR Associates, is an experienced corporate financier having worked for a number of years in ABN AMRO Corporate Finance (Ireland) on a wide variety of transactions including equity fundraising's, M&A, and divestments. More recently she was responsible for corporate development at Eurologic Systems Group who was acquired by Adaptec Inc in 2003. Orla has a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Accounting from University College Dublin and is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland